Zoos in China pay handsomely for baby elephants from Zimbabwe’s cash-strapped national parks

All Share Services

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Over and over again, the baby elephant scrapes its skin against the metal bars of a zoo in northern China, appearing agitated and distressed.

Not long ago this elephant lived with its family herd in the wilds of Hwange National Park, the largest reserve in Zimbabwe. Then it was caught, and along with three other young elephants, flown halfway around the world.

At Taiyuan Zoo, where Chinese animal lovers filmed the plight of the little lone elephant behind bars, another that came from Zimbabwe died soon after its long and difficult journey. The elephants arrived in late November, during a winter of record cold temperatures.

Now animal rights groups in Zimbabwe are fighting to stop more of their country’s baby elephants from being taken from the wild and sold to zoos in China, which pay handsomely for these animals from Zimbabwe’s cash-strapped national parks.

China and Zimbabwe have close political and economic ties, with trade between them reaching more than $800 million last year. There is no shortage of elephants in southern Africa and there is demand in China, but animal rights groups argue it’s inhumane to take young animals from the wild and send them on difficult journeys to overseas zoos where they are kept — often in dire conditions.

Dave Neale, director of animal welfare for the Animals Asia Foundation, said that trade in wild elephants caught and sold by Zimbabwe to China is legal under CITES, the international authority that regulates trade in wildlife.

But it is “far from ethical,” he said.

Elephant calves form close bonds with their mothers and other female relatives, Neale explained, and removing a young elephant from its herd in the wild to captivity is devastating. Many of the calves die, he added.

“From a moral standpoint, removing a highly intelligent, social animal from its family group and wild habitat to be shipped to another country and placed inside a concrete cell cannot be justified,” Neale said. “This trade in wild-caught elephants is morally repugnant and should stop immediately.”

After news of the young African elephant’s death at Taiyuan Zoo, five other 3- and 4-year-old elephants slated to be sent to China were returned to the wild following weeks of pressure from the Zimbabwe National SPCA. While animal lovers cheered this success, by that point it was impossible for the young elephants’ family herds to be located.

And while that shipment was stopped, animal rights groups say there are reports of four more baby elephants soon to be exported to China.

Johnny Rodrigues, chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, has been working to draw attention to the situation, and fears this won’t be the end. He said that Chinese zoos have paid for a total of eight elephants, and when public attention lessens, the rest of the order will be shipped.

He said that Zimbabwe’s national parks badly need the money — they have been unable to pay the wages of employees the past few months.

Caroline Washaya-Moyo, spokeswoman for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, the government agency that runs the country’s national parks, couldn’t be reached by phone despite repeated attempts, and didn’t respond to emails requesting an interview.

Ed Lanca, chairman of the Zimbabwe National SPCA, said this moneymaking venture by Zimbabwe’s national parks “is basically kidnapping.”

“It’s unacceptable that a baby elephant is taken from its mother and sent to a foreign country with substandard conditions,” he said.

Lanca said the Zimbabwe National SPCA, which is barely surviving on limited private donor funding, has too few resources to help monitor the exports of elephants. His organization only has two animal welfare inspectors for the entire country, and their last truck capable of making out-of-town trips recently broke down.

“If another export happens, we can’t assist because I don’t have the means to intervene,” he said. “It’s dire.”

Featured Slide Shows

Share on Twitter

Share on Facebook

1
of
14

Close

Fullscreen

Thumbnails

Previous

Next

13 of "Girls'" most cringeworthy sex scenes

Hannah and Adam, "Pilot"

One of our first exposures to uncomfortable “Girls” sex comes early, in the pilot episode, when Hannah and Adam “get feisty” (a phrase Hannah hates) on the couch. The pair is about to go at it doggy-style when Adam nearly inserts his penis in “the wrong hole,” and after Hannah corrects him, she awkwardly explains her lack of desire to have anal sex in too many words. “Hey, let’s play the quiet game,” Adam says, thrusting. And so the romance begins.

Previous

Next

13 of "Girls'" most cringeworthy sex scenes

Marnie and Elijah, "It's About Time"

In an act of “betrayal” that messes up each of their relationships with Hannah, Marnie and Elijah open Season 2 with some more couch sex, which is almost unbearable to watch. Elijah, who is trying to explore the “hetero side” of his bisexuality, can’t maintain his erection, and the entire affair ends in very uncomfortable silence.

Previous

Next

13 of "Girls'" most cringeworthy sex scenes

Marnie and Charlie, "Vagina Panic"

Poor Charlie. While he and Marnie have their fair share of uncomfortable sex over the course of their relationship, one of the saddest moments (aside from Marnie breaking up with him during intercourse) is when Marnie encourages him to penetrate her from behind so she doesn’t have to look at him. “This feels so good,” Charlie says. “We have to go slow.” Poor sucker.

Previous

Next

13 of "Girls'" most cringeworthy sex scenes

Shoshanna and camp friend Matt, "Hannah's Diary"

We’d be remiss not to mention Shoshanna’s effort to lose her virginity to an old camp friend, who tells her how “weird” it is that he “loves to eat pussy” moments before she admits she’s never “done it” before. At least it paves the way for the uncomfortable sex we later get to watch her have with Ray?

Previous

Next

13 of "Girls'" most cringeworthy sex scenes

Hannah and Adam, "Hard Being Easy"

On the heels of trying (unsuccessfully) to determine the status of her early relationship with Adam, Hannah walks by her future boyfriend’s bedroom to find him masturbating alone, in one of the strangest scenes of the first season. As Adam jerks off and refuses to let Hannah participate beyond telling him how much she likes watching, we see some serious (and odd) character development ... which ends with Hannah taking a hundred-dollar bill from Adam’s wallet, for cab fare and pizza (as well as her services).

Previous

Next

13 of "Girls'" most cringeworthy sex scenes

Marnie and Booth Jonathan, "Bad Friend"

Oh, Booth Jonathan -- the little man who “knows how to do things.” After he turns Marnie on enough to make her masturbate in the bathroom at the gallery where she works, Booth finally seals the deal in a mortifying and nearly painful to watch sex scene that tells us pretty much everything we need to know about how much Marnie is willing to fake it.

Previous

Next

13 of "Girls'" most cringeworthy sex scenes

Tad and Loreen, "The Return"

The only sex scene in the series not to feature one of the main characters, Hannah’s parents’ showertime anniversary celebration is easily one of the most cringe-worthy moments of the show’s first season. Even Hannah’s mother, Loreen, observes how embarrassing the situation is, which ends with her husband, Tad, slipping out of the shower and falling naked and unconscious on the bathroom floor.

Previous

Next

13 of "Girls'" most cringeworthy sex scenes

Hannah and the pharmacist, "The Return"

Tad and Loreen aren’t the only ones to get some during Hannah’s first season trip home to Michigan. The show’s protagonist finds herself in bed with a former high school classmate, who doesn’t exactly enjoy it when Hannah puts one of her fingers near his anus. “I’m tight like a baby, right?” Hannah asks at one point. Time to press pause.

Previous

Next

13 of "Girls'" most cringeworthy sex scenes

Hannah and Adam, "Role-Play"

While it’s not quite a full-on, all-out sex scene, Hannah and Adam’s attempt at role play in Season 3 is certainly an intimate encounter to behold (or not). Hannah dons a blond wig and gets a little too into her role, giving a melodramatic performance that ends with a passerby punching Adam in the face. So there’s that.

Previous

Next

13 of "Girls'" most cringeworthy sex scenes

Shoshanna and Ray, "Together"

As Shoshanna and Ray near the end of their relationship, we can see their sexual chemistry getting worse and worse. It’s no more evident than when Ray is penetrating a clothed and visibly horrified Shoshanna from behind, who ends the encounter by asking if her partner will just “get out of me.”

Previous

Next

13 of "Girls'" most cringeworthy sex scenes

Hannah and Frank, "Video Games"

Hannah, Jessa’s 19-year-old stepbrother, a graveyard and too much chatting. Need we say more about how uncomfortable this sex is to watch?

Previous

Next

13 of "Girls'" most cringeworthy sex scenes

Marnie and Desi, "Iowa"

Who gets her butt motorboated? Is this a real thing? Aside from the questionable logistics and reality of Marnie and Desi’s analingus scene, there’s also the awkward moment when Marnie confuses her partner’s declaration of love for licking her butthole with love for her. Oh, Marnie.

Previous

Next

13 of "Girls'" most cringeworthy sex scenes

Hannah and Adam, "Vagina Panic"

There is too much in this scene to dissect: fantasies of an 11-year-old girl with a Cabbage Patch lunchbox, excessive references to that little girl as a “slut” and Adam ripping off a condom to ejaculate on Hannah’s chest. No wonder it ends with Hannah saying she almost came.

Related Videos

Comments

Comment Preview

You may use these
HTML
tags and attributes:
<a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

Salon is proud to feature content from GlobalPost, an awarding-winning international news site that focuses on original reporting from journalists stationed around the world. GlobalPost combines traditional journalistic values with the power of new media to offer a fresh perspective on global developments.